


The Bridge

by InterDimensional_Ventures



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Daisy Johnson origin story, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-08-28 13:02:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16723932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InterDimensional_Ventures/pseuds/InterDimensional_Ventures
Summary: Karnak has been working behind the scenes and Daisy is the key to saving the Earth from Thanos.  Set between Season 3 and Season 4 of Agents of SHIELD when Daisy is on her own as Quake.  Also set after Captain America: Civil War but before Black Panther.





	1. A Dickensian Tale

**Author's Note:**

> Written as part of a series of short stories for Daisy's birthday. The Inhumans television show (ugh!) does NOT exist in this universe and the Watchdogs have not been founded yet.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy finds out about her origins and they are a lot more complicated than she realized.

The Bridge – Part 1

A Dickensian Tale

The automated shuttle glided smoothly over the stark lunar landscape. The speed and silence with which it moved made the experience both surreal and frightening to the lone passenger on board. It moved with precision toward a breathtaking city made of shining metal spires and dark crystal windows nestled among the rocky crags of a crater wall.  


So that is Attilan, Daisy thought to herself as her ship slowed its approach and altered its course slightly toward an immense crystal set in a metal wall. As the shuttle drew closer it revealed itself to be an immense door which slowly slid open revealing an even bigger hangar behind it. The craft flew in and settled next to an airlock as the hangar door slid closed. Intriguingly, Daisy noted that the gravity felt normal despite being on the moon; she would have to ask her host about that.

She waited a moment until the airlock door swung open and she was met by an odd looking man dressed in black and green. His clothes were simple, Spartan, without any decoration at all other than the green on black of the material. His appearance was almost normal though his skull was slightly larger than it should have been; that, and it was shaved bald, and covered in tattoos.

“I am Karnak,” he said, introducing himself before she could say a word. “I am King Blackagar Boltagon’s advisor.” He bowed slightly. “I am also your uncle.”  
The question about the gravity was quickly forgotten as Daisy felt like all the air had just been sucked out of the room into the vacuum of space. She struggled to breath.  
“My uncle?”

“Yes, I am your mother’s half-brother. There are many things about your origin that you deserve to be told before you are introduced to the council. Some facts about you are generally known in Attilan but there are some things known only to me and they should not be hidden from you any longer.”

“You mean the people of Attilan know who I am? I thought that I was just a no name, mixed race child of an Inhuman mother and a human father.”

“Our powers are derived from our genetics and our genetics are drawn from our lineages. Every lineage of every Inhuman, even the commoners, is known. The most powerful abilities run through the royal family, below them are the nobles, and lower still are the abilities of the commoners but since even the commoners are powerful compared to humans, all of our lineages are tracked and used to make predictions about our potential abilities.”

“So who am I really?” Daisy was almost afraid to ask the question because every time she thought she knew who she was, new revelations knocked her on her butt all over again.  
Karnak gestured to the long, silent passage in front of them, “Perhaps we can talk as we go?” Daisy nodded her assent and began walking next to him down the passageway. He said nothing for several moments and she realized with a start that he was moving with perfect silence, if she looked straight ahead instead of at him, it was as if she was in the hallway all by herself.

“I am Karnak, son of Mander and Azur, I have an older brother named Triton who is also your uncle. We are cousins to the king on our father’s side and cousins to Queen Medusa on our mother’s side. 

“So I am a second cousin to the king and queen,” Daisy interrupted, her voice dripping with sarcasm. It was really too much to accept that the one-time orphan cast off was actually a member of the royal family. It was like reading a very bad Victorian novel.

“Actually, the correct term is not second cousin but first cousin, once removed, and you are related to the king only, not the queen. You are a second cousin to the king’s son Ahura,” he replied with a cool directness that rebuffed her sarcasm. “As a young man my father had a liaison with a commoner. This is forbidden because the Inhuman abilities of the royal family are so powerful that they must be meticulously tracked and marriages carefully arranged. Their liaison resulted in a child, you mother Jiaying. She found herself in something of an ”in-between” position that made her life very difficult. She was not given the privileges or responsibilities of a royal, or even a noble, but she was also not allowed to enjoy the quiet anonymity of living as a commoner. Friction with my mother, who was my father’s betrothed at the time, led to Jiaying leaving Attilan completely. Out in the world she found a community of commoners who had chosen to live among humanity and interbreed with them. Some of their children even had Inhuman potential within them. She felt that she had found her purpose so she set up a refuge to help guide them through their struggles and to teach them about their heritage. She saw that many of them had lived away from Attilan for so many generations that Inhumans were nothing but myths to them. She wished to correct this and teach them their own history. In time she even met a human herself and had a child of her own,” Karnak said as he smiled at Daisy.

Daisy nodded, “Okay, but when I received the invitation to come to this meeting I was under the impression that it was about something more important than the fact that I am a half-human, bastard cousin to the king.”

“Yes, considerably more important, and yet who you are is central to understanding everything else. While your mother was helping the Inhumans on Earth, my father Mander married my mother Azur and my brother and I were born. I quickly rose to the position of Director of Interstellar Intelligence because of my abilities. Over time, I began to notice the subtlest of patterns in different events. I eventually came to the conclusion that Thanos, an ancient being of vast power, was carrying out some great plan through these events. I determined that Thanos was after the infinity stones, artifacts that would make him the most powerful being in the universe. Thanos is known as the Mad Titan and if he gained control of the infinity stones it would be a disaster on a universal scale. As I began tracking the locations of the infinity stones so that we might try to obtain them before he did, I discovered that several of the stones were making their way to Earth and that it was Thanos’ plan to collect them there all at once. At the very least, the planet would be destroyed as collateral damage, while he learned how to control them, at the worst he would do something dark and malicious to the entire planet just because he is mad. 

“When I presented this information to the council, three positions quickly emerged. The large majority wished to simply leave. Attilan is self-sufficient and mobile, the entire city can take flight and could have easily left the Solar System and travelled among the stars.”

“Wait, the entire city can fly through space?”

“Yes, we have already moved it once. It was originally built among the Himalayas on Earth, but when humanity began experimenting with nuclear weapons the decision was made to move it the Blue Area on the far side of the moon in order to avoid conflict with humans. Now, if I may continue…

“I evaluated this plan and estimated the humanity would most certainly not survive a visit from Thanos without the protection of the Inhumans. Even Attilan, lacking the resources and manpower of Earth, would have only a 10% chance of survival since Thanos would certainly see Inhumans as a threat and hunt us down wherever we went. If he took possession of all of the infinity stones we could not withstand him if he found us.

“A small minority advocated materializing quantum bombs over all major human cities in order to destroy the majority of humanity. The rest would be enslaved and the resources of the planet used by Attilan to defend itself against Thanos. This plan was conceived partly in retaliation for all of the injustices inflicted upon Inhumans living on Earth by the humans who feared them, experimented on them, exploited them, and killed them.” Daisy shuddered remembering the fate of those who had been captured by Hydra. Karnak continued, “I estimated that this plan would give Attilan only a 5% chance of survival since we would be fighting both Thanos and the remnants of humanity, who clearly excel at insurgency.

“The third option, the one favored by the king, was to find a way for humans and Inhumans to work together to defend the planet. Our best chance of survival would be to stop Thanos before he ever gained possession of the stones. I estimated only a 30% chance of success but it was still our best option. The problem was, for most Inhumans, Shield and Hydra were simply two sides of the same coin and individual governments had the potential to be even worse as they sought to exploit Inhumans as weapons to use against each other. From the human side, beings with powers were dangerous and destructive, difficult to control and prone to abuse their abilities. How could such deep fear and distrust be overcome? A common enemy would do it but Thanos is not clearly present and some on the council still doubt my analysis of his potential threat. Thanos is even less of a threat in the eyes of the humans who have never even heard of him and who will not know of his presence until he suddenly appears above the planet to collect the stones. 

“I needed some way to build a bridge between the Inhumans and Shield, a common point of trust and strength that both sides could depend upon through the coming crisis. The great chasm of suspicion and doubt that existed between the two seemed too great to bridge and every possibility I considered seemed doomed to failure. It was at this point that I went to visit your mother. I thought that she might have some insight on how to do this since she had far more experience dealing with humans than I did. Unfortunately, when I arrived she had just been captured by Hydra.”

Daisy’s heart began racing and her breath was coming quicker. The pounding of the blood in her ears made it difficult to hear what he was saying. She had a bad feeling about where this story was going. Karnak seemed to sense her growing panic and smiled sadly.

“You are truly a royal, I can see that you are starting to anticipate my story. Your ability to control vibrations is actually related to the king’s own powers and your natural ability to see patterns that no one else sees is similar to my own.” He paused a moment to let her digest that before continuing.

“Your father had given you into the care of some friends in the village while he went off in search of your mother. By the time I arrived Hydra had realized that there was something special about your mother and they were tearing the village apart trying to find you. They were going to vivisect you like they vivisected your mother in an attempt to find out if there was anything special about you.”

“What did you do?” Daisy asked in a whisper.

“I eliminated the Hydra agents before they could find you.”

Karnak became silent at this moment and Daisy realized she was holding her breath. Fortunately, he continued before she could pass out.

“It was at that moment that I saw the way to save Earth, both humanity and Inhumanity. I could have returned you to your father but I made sure that Shield agents found you instead.”

“What? You were the one that broke up our family? Do you know what that did to my parents? Do you know how much grief and pain that caused?” Daisy exploded. “What is wrong with you?”

“It was like cutting off my own hand.” He said quietly with the smallest catch in his voice. He turned and looked her in the eye. “But you must understand this, I would cut off my own hand without hesitation if that would stop Thanos. I would sacrifice my own life and the lives of my loved ones if that would stop Thanos. It is well said, ‘Heavy is the head that wears the crown’. As a royal, my decisions are not about saving those who are nearest and dearest to me, my decisions are about saving billions of people that I do not even know but who I am responsible to protect. As much as I may want to sacrifice everything, including the lives of all of humanity, to save my own loved ones, I do not have the right to do that. Sacrificing billions to save my loved ones is not an act of great love, it is an act of supreme selfishness.”

His eyes penetrated into hers and she saw the truth of what he was saying but it didn’t make the anger or pain go away. He began walking down the hallway again and she followed him closely.

“Half-human, bastard cousin of the king that you are, you are still a member of the Royal Family and that carries great weight with Inhumans. The minority group that wished to bomb the planet would not do so if your location on Earth was unknown, for risk of killing you by accident. They would do so if absolutely necessary but their hesitance gave me the leverage I needed to stall for more time. Likewise, the majority group would not risk leaving you behind on the Earth for the same reason.” 

“But you knew my location.”

“Yes, but that was a fact that I declined to share with the others since it would eliminate my leverage. I helped enact the protocol that kept you moving around to keep you safe from Hydra and so that the council could not find you.”

“So I have been nothing but a pawn in your political games this entire time?” Daisy asked in a voice that cut like a knife.

“Your presence on Earth protected the entire planet, does that make you a pawn? If anything you are the Queen, metaphorically speaking, since you are the single most important person in this entire plan.” 

“It seems like you left a lot of things to chance if that really was your plan.”

“It is true that some things had to be left to chance, it was unavoidable, and many challenges were left for you to handle on your own to make you stronger and more capable. But far less was left to chance than you imagine. I have been watching over you the entire time. I was the one that made sure the redacted Shield file about your origin was saved in a location you could access. I was also the one who left the bread crumbs making sure that Coulson’s team was the one that tracked you down and found you in your van…

“Why Coulson’s team? Why did that matter?” Daisy interrupted.

“Biochemistry,” Karnak answered. Daisy gave him a confused look prompting him to explain. “Our DNA codes for the proteins that our bodies produce. DNA codes for the pheromones and other biochemical markers that our bodies produce and excreted through our sweat and breath, most of these are detected by others at a level well below their conscious thinking. My research on Coulson showed that he was a good man, and I inferred that he had been brought back from the dead using Kree DNA. You also have Kree DNA within you. The two of you smell like ‘family’ to each other at a level below your conscious thinking. This contributed to a feeling of trust between the two of you and helped you to bond to each other. That bond needed to be as strong as possible if this plan was to work.”

Daisy was stunned into silence by this revelation and Karnak continued. "Do not worry, your relationship with Coulson is real, I gave it every advantage that I could but I could not force it to exist if the two of you were incompatible. Next, I made sure that Raina put the pieces together and figured out that you were Calvin’s Johnson’s daughter and finally, I arranged for the diviner to be liberated from Shield custody so you could transition.” 

Karnak stopped as if debating how much more to tell her. Daisy felt a wave of bitterness wash over her.

“And what about Hive? Was he part of your plan also?”

The tiniest hint of regret appeared on Karnak’s face.

“No. I am sorry that Hive took control of you, his reappearance was one of the variables that was outside of my control. But even that traumatic experience proved to be useful, it has made you so much stronger than you would have been otherwise. You learned how to overcome even the most painful adversity and how to truly use your powers to their maximum extent. Before Hive you were always holding back out of fear of hurting others but now you know that there are no limits to what you can do.”

Karnak finished speaking and the two walked in silence for several moments.

“Is that all?” Daisy finally asked. There was so much to absorb, she was actually getting tired of hearing him talk but there was more she needed to know. “How does all of this set up your master plan to save the universe?”

“Your position as a Shield agent will provide justification for the King’s supporters to push for cooperation with Shield. Your brief detour as the vigilante Quake has proven challenging to overcome but I have devised a way to help you regain the trust of key people within Shield, people who genuinely want to trust you again and are looking for a reason to do so.

“In addition to Shield, you are important to the Inhuman community on Earth. Your actions as Quake has led them to see you as an inspiration and a protector. We must be careful that we don’t jeopardize your standing in the Inhuman community while we restore your relationship with Shield. You alone will have the reputation and relationships to bring Shield, Earth’s Inhumans, and Attilan to the planning table and you alone have the ability to lead all three into battle when the time comes.”

He stopped outside of a door and looked her in the eye, studying her face closely before speaking.

“You are the bridge that will save the planet and possibly the universe. You are the only one who can do this.”

Daisy felt overwhelmed by these revelations but May’s words came back to her, reminding her of the importance of staying calm and focused no matter what was going on. She slowly drew a deep breath and exhaled it letting it calm her mind and body. Lincoln was convinced that she was destined for something greater than dying to stop Hive. Now she knew what it was. Meeting some council members would be a cake walk compared to what she had already been through the last three years.

“Alright, let’s go meet the council.”


	2. Getting the Band Back Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy gets the Secret Warriors back together (sort of...), to stop a Thanos intel mission.

“So, what was it like?” James asked, curiously. “You know, Attilan.”

“You’ve heard of Attilan?” Daisy asked, getting curious herself.

“Jiaying might have mentioned it once or twice,” he answered in his thick Australian accent. “She didn’t talk about it much and most of the others just assumed that it was legendary like the bogeyman in the obelisk. Now that we’ve all seen how the obelisk worked out…” he paused to shudder violently. “Now that we’ve seen how that worked out it occurred to me that Attilan is probably real too. You got into that spaceship and took off for parts unknown, I just figured that was maybe where you went.”

“What is this Attilan?” Elena asked.

“Yeah, I’m curious too,” Joey chipped in.

“Thousands of years ago Inhumans built the city of Attilan. They have highly advanced technology but society there is very stratified by status and caste. There is the Royal family, the Noble families, and the commoners. 

“Having a bunch of people with powers running around can obviously be very dangerous so most commoners don’t pass through the mist. Between that and how restrictive everything is there, a lot of commoners left the city and began settling among the humans and living with them. When the decision was made to relocate the entire city to the moon, the Inhumans left here on Earth were stranded. Most of them had been living among humans for so many generations that they didn’t even know they were Inhuman anymore so they didn’t miss it when it was gone.”

“So it IS real!” James cackled, rubbing his hands in glee. “The home city of the Inhumans! So when do we get to go visit? Pure blooded Inhumans are supposed to be genetically superior to humans and I can’t wait to lay my eyes on a full-blooded Inhuman woman. Everyone of them must be pretty close to perfect 10’s.”

Elena backhanded his shoulder hard and glared at him.

“Not any time soon, I’m afraid,” Daisy explained. “If the commoners are at the bottom of the food chain in Attilan you can imagine where the half-human mix-breed descendants of commoners fit in their society.” 

“Sorry if I touched a bit of a nerve there…”

“What kind of a highly advanced society still thinks like that about their own people?” Elena interrupted.

“Doesn’t matter,” Daisy said, redirecting the conversation. “We have a little mission that we have to carry out first.”

“I’m not sure I like the tone of your voice when you say that,” Joey muttered, eyeing her suspiciously.

“There is a great threat coming and the entire universe is at risk.”

“Oh, is that all?” Elena said sarcastically. “Last year it was saving the entire planet, now it is saving the entire universe? I think we are peaking too early, what can we possibly do to top that next year?”

“It does sound a bit melodramatic,” James added.

“Our little mission today isn’t about saving the universe,” Daisy explained, “it’s about building trust. There are a lot of groups that will have to work together in order to stop Thanos when he arrives and most of them have ZERO trust for each other right now. Think of this as the ultimate trust building exercise.”

“You mean like where a bunch of corporate execs get together at some retreat and practice falling backwards and catching each other?” Joey asked, confusion written all over his face.

“Yeah, except that we’re going to be catching Shield and they’ll be catching us.”

“Are you mental?” James exploded. “They’ll put Joey and Elena under house arrest and they’ll stick you and me into the deepest dungeon they can find and throw away the key.”

Elena burst out in rapid fire Spanish that had Joey nodding before she finally switched to English. 

“How can you trust them after the Sokovia Accords and everything that they have done to Inhumans and powered people since then.” 

“I don’t trust Shield, not even a little bit. I trust Coulson, May, and Mack. They have to know that they can trust me so that when I tell them about Thanos they’ll believe it. Shield is just doing what the government has told it to do so we have to convince Shield of the threat so that they can begin to work on convincing the government.”

“Does this plan come from…?” James pointed upward toward space.

“It comes from my uncle and he really knows how to put a plan together.”

Joey took a long hard look at Daisy’s face, then his expression softened. “If this is really about saving the universe, I’m in.” 

Elena looked back and forth from Joey to Daisy and then nodded. “Me too.”

“You don’t even know yet what this little scheme will cost you,” Daisy sighed.

“Doesn’t matter, what matters is that I trust you and the universe needs saving,” Joey affirmed, “even if it doesn’t realize it yet.” Elena nodded her agreement.

“So you’re going to make the voice of reason the bad guy?” James glared at the other three for several moments before relenting. “Okay, if we do this, I expect to see Attilan before I die.”

“You need to forget about Attilan!” Elena exclaimed. “It sounds like a very stuck up place to me.”

“It’s an important part of our heritage as Inhumans, to find out who we truly are and where we came from,” he responded. Elena gave him a piercing look that made it clear she didn’t believe a word of it. James shuffled uncomfortably, “And also, I want to see some of those genetically perfect women…”

“…and there were firedancers…” Daisy said, chuckling to herself. The others looked at her like she was not right in the head. “Nothing, James just reminds me a lot of someone else sometimes.”

 

* * * * *

The marauder ship touched down silently in a dry river bed less than a mile outside the borders of Area 51. Invisible to radar and cloaked from view, it had landed undetected right next to one of the most secure military bases in the world. Karnak’s intel had been spot on. Daisy and her team watched as its crew of twelve disembarked and then closed the hatch making it completely invisible again. 

“Mark the ship for Coulson.”

Elena flashed over and back before Daisy could blink.

“Sorry it took so long, I had to feel around for one of the landing struts to attach the tracker to.”

“Interesting way you have of apologizing and bragging at the same time,” James commented appreciatively. “I may have to try that myself.” Elena smiled.

“We need to capture all of them for questioning. Karnak said that they had been hired indirectly by Thanos to collect some information. They don’t look like much but I am willing to bet that they have all of the technology they need to defend themselves and get what they came after.”

James shook his head, “Sad, really, when you think about it. The future of intelligent beings is to become nothing more than pack mules carrying the technology around so that the technology can do all the important work.”

“You talk too much,” Elena whispered.

“Has anybody thought about the irony that human-alien hybrids are about to capture a bunch of aliens who are trying to break into Area 51, of all places?” Joey asked rhetorically.

James grunted, “I usually skip the irony and go straight to sarcasm, it’s easier that way.”

The marauders did a quick sweep of their environment with several handheld devices. One of them pointed in the general direction of Daisy’s team before pointing toward the military base. The Inhumans had left behind every piece of technology and even dressed in basic cotton clothing. James had his chain but that would register as nothing more than a piece of scrap steel to their equipment. It was hoped that they would appear to be nothing more than some indigenous animals to the Marauder’s equipment and at the moment that seemed to be the case. Daisy’s team watched as the pirates’ conversation got increasingly animated, several started to move back toward the ship before their leader bullied them into submission. He (She? It?) ordered the crew to get closer together and then punched several buttons on a rather large backpack attached to the back of one of the beings. 

“Okay, remember the plan. Joey, I want you to melt anything that looks like a weapon or anything that they point at us. If it doesn’t look dangerous try not to damage it, Shield will want it. Elena, get behind them and attack from there. Cuff their wrists and ankles if you can. Try not to knock them out, they aren’t human and we don’t want to kill any of them by accident. James, get out in front of them and make the biggest distraction you can. Use your chain ONLY if it is absolutely necessary. I’m going to hit the entire group from the side and try to knock as many off of their feet as possible.”

“My kind of distraction this close to a military base is going to draw a lot of attention from the locals.” James pointed out, “We won’t have much time.”

“I know. We’ll have to finish it quickly before they get here. Coulson and his team are on the way; we need to make sure that they are the ones who get their hands on the… marauders.” Daisy had almost said ‘aliens’ but for some reason that just sounded wrong considering that she herself was part Kree and therefore part alien.

“James, get moving, I want that distraction before they get clear of the riverbed. We’ll wait for your signal.” 

“Yes, ma’am!” James moved off quickly while the rest of the team watched.

“If you feel the ground shaking, drop to all fours for a second or two and it’ll stop. I may throw in some ground tremors to keep them off their feet.” Elena and Joey both nodded.

The marauders began to shimmer and fade from sight. 

“Come on James, do it now.” Daisy whispered to herself. It would be tougher if they couldn’t see them. 

Right on cue, rocks began flying through the air and exploding over the shimmering spot that marked the location of the pirates. Yells of surprise and curses of pain filled the air.

Daisy led the charge over the ridge and hit the marauders with a wide angled force blast. All of them were slammed into the far wall of the riverbed and the shimmering invisibility screen snapped off leaving all of the pirates very visible. A few began to struggle to their feet and a second blast put them back on the ground. Joey began melting everything that looked like a weapon and Elena rushed forward and slapped cuffs on each one in less than a second.

James came running forward, “That was too easy.”

“That’s not the hard part.” Daisy replied.

They heard a distinctive whine as the ship’s engines began to warm up. Without hesitation Daisy blasted the spot where she thought it was. The ship tipped over as it tried to launch and shot sideways into the ridge they had just been hiding behind. The resulting impact shook the ground knocking Elena, Joey, and James off their feet. 

Joey looked up and saw Daisy still standing as if nothing had happened. 

“How were you able to stay on your feet through that?”

Daisy shrugged, “I guess because I can cause earthquakes I’m also immune to earthquakes. It’s kind of like a sailor who has lived their whole life at sea. It just becomes natural for them to keep their feet even during a storm.”

Sirens began to wail as vehicles came streaming out of Area 51 and racing toward the riverbed. The Zephyr One dropped out of the sky above them even as black Shield vehicles came roaring out of the low hills behind them. The Inhumans were effectively trapped between the three forces.

Daisy took a deep breath, “Now comes the hard part.”

Coulson and Mack jumped out of the lead Shield vehicle, pulled their guns and ran over to Daisy’s team while the Zephyr touched down. The Inhumans quickly found themselves surrounded by agents. More agents poured out of the Zephyr as U.S. military vehicles arrived on the scene.

Daisy held out both wrists to Coulson, “We surrender.”


	3. Into the Lion's Den

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy lets herself be captured by SHIELD

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written between Season 3 and Season 4 before Mace was announced as Director. It is written with Maria Hill as director and considering how different their two personalities are it would be a major rewrite to swap them out so in this universe Maria Hill was director after SHIELD was recommissioned.

“Why are you doing this Daisy? Why are you turning yourself in?” Coulson asked as he put the specially designed shackles on her wrists.

“I need to tell you some very important things and I need you to believe me when I tell them.”

“No technology, not even any artificial fibers in your clothing. What’s going on here? I’ve never know you to go anywhere without at least your phone.”

Daisy nodded to the marauders who were being tossed into a containment unit.

“They would have detected anything like that and realized there was an ambush. This way they just thought we were some of the local fauna.”

Coulson had a thousand official questions to ask but his face softened and a sad look came over it.

“I’m glad to see you’re okay, I just hate the fact that we have to meet like this.”

Mack smiled at her, “It IS good to see you Tremors.”

“I know, it’s good to see you again too. Don’t worry about it, I’m the one that invited you to this little party, this is what I expected to happen.”

“Unfortunately, Elena and Joey will be reprimanded and probably placed under house arrest for participating in an unsanctioned action. You and James will be imprisoned as enemies of peace and threats to the general welfare.”

“I know. I’m assuming that there will be an interrogation first?”

“Of course, Director Hill will want to conduct it personally.”

“Try and get as much information as you can out of those slobs,” Daisy said, indicating the marauders with a nod of her head. “They’ll help to corroborate my story if you get the truth. Oh, and there is an invisible ship over there where that big crater is in the side of the gully. You might want to collect that before the Air Force does.”

* * * * *

Daisy and James sat in a containment unit playing cards when Mariah Hill walked in with Coulson and May in tow.

“Phil, I gave strict orders that they were to be kept in separate units and in shackles! Why are they together playing cards?”

“He did lock us up separately and in shackles. The shackles were uncomfortable and I got bored so I removed the shackles and let James out of his containment unit so he could come over here and play poker with me.”

“I’m up $300,” James added with a wink.

“You wish!” Daisy laughed. “You’re up $30.”

A tech who had been examining the door looked up at that moment, “It looks like she shattered the locking mechanism on her own unit into millions of microscopic fragments and then hacked the lock on his unit.”

“How did you do that? This containment unit was specifically designed to hold you,” Hill demanded.

“I guess I’ve picked up a few new tricks along the way.”

Hill turned to the tech, “Explain to me how she was able to destroy your high tech, vibration proof lock.”

The tech was obviously embarrassed and angry at the failure of his technology. “I don’t know how she did it, I’m just telling you that she did.”

“And the security cameras saw nothing?” She snapped.

“Hey, don’t get angry at him,” Daisy intervened, “There is a reason that Shield chased me for six months without ever being able to catch me until I CHOSE to surrender.

Hill got directly in Daisy’s face, “Is this supposed to impress me? Or are you trying to intimidate me? Either way it’s not working, it’s just pissing me off. You want to build trust? This little stunt is not how you do it. The Air Force wants to dissect you and I am just about ready to turn you over to them.”

Coulson and May both frowned at Hill’s tirade. Daisy didn’t even blink.

“Actually, this ‘little stunt’ was done to make one thing perfectly clear. I am here by MY choice, not yours. I control my destiny, not Shield. In the interest of building trust, I alerted you to an alien reconnaissance team, I captured them for you so none of your agents would be injured, and I chose to walk into the lion’s den on my own. You have had to do nothing but accept my free gifts to you. I am willing accept whatever terrible things Shield may do to me, even if that means locking me away in some dark dungeon for the rest of my life, or sending me to the Air Force to be dissected. I just want to be clear that while you are doing all of those things to me, it is because I CHOOSE to allow you to do them, and not because you have the power to force your will upon me.”

“Loki pulled the same stunt when he let us capture him and look how that turned out. Why should we ever trust you?” Hill replied coldly.  
“Loki wasn’t trying to earn your trust; he was trying to lull you to sleep and Shield relaxed when they caught him so his plan worked. Besides, I am not trying to get you to trust me, I am trying to get them to trust me.” Daisy glanced meaningfully at Coulson and May.

“Why would you willingly stick your head into the hangman’s noose just to earn our trust?” Asked May quietly. Hill shot her a dangerous look but May ignored it.

“Because if we don’t learn how to trust each other and stand together then we will all die separately. It won’t matter if I’m in prison or dead on a dissection table, the entire planet, and possibly the entire universe, will be destroyed.”

“A little dramatic, don’t you think?” Hill remarked sarcastically.

“Now see that’s what I said,” James interjected as he stepped forward. “But she’s got the word straight from Attilan so it’s certainly worth listening to. Now about that dissection bit, I want to be clear, that is a Daisy thing. I don’t like the idea of prison but could live with it if I had to. I want to take the whole idea of dissection off the table in my case.”

“James, be quiet.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He pointed at himself and mouthed the words No Dissection at Coulson as he stepped back to his position behind Daisy.

“Who is Attilan?” Demanded the director.

“What is Attilan,” Corrected Daisy. “Attilan is the home city of the Inhumans. Built thousands of years ago in the Himalayas, it was moved in the 1940’s when humans began experimenting with nuclear weapons.”

“An entire city moved? Moved where?” Coulson asked in surprise.

“The far side of the moon.”

“This story is getting more and more ridiculous,” muttered Hill.

“Aliens from outer space attack New York, led by a Norse god and you think a city on the far side of the moon is ridiculous?” Daisy asked, raising an eyebrow. “Listen, the Inhumans built a highly advanced city thousands of years ago. They have protected Earth from all kinds of past alien invasions over the centuries. Shield just assumed that we hadn’t been invaded in the past because we were a pretty boring planet but it turns out that Earth is actually a very strategic planet, it has just been defended by Inhumans for all of these years. The Inhumans here on the planet are just the results of commoners who “went native’ so to speak, and intermarried with humans. The Inhumans in Attilan are purebred and very powerful. They are also very unhappy with the way that humans have been treating the local Inhumans. The only reason they haven’t bombed the planet back to the stone age already is because they know that our best chance of defeating Thanos is if we can all learn to work together. They trust you even less than you trust them and they have the bigger stick. They are doing everything they can to try and work with you.” 

“I don’t believe you, you are working some angle. No one would willingly stick their head in the hangman’s noose if they didn’t have to,” Hill said, borrowing May’s analogy. “We just need to figure out what you are up to.”

“No one? I would stick my head in a literal hangman’s noose if it was the only way to save the Earth and I am willing to bet you would too,” Daisy countered.

Hill glared back but had no answer that.

“We are all so used to fighting for justice, fighting to protect the weak, for people like us, fighting is easy, it’s our default response.” Coulson said thoughtfully. He looked at Daisy with new found appreciation in his eyes. “When someone chooses not to fight, but to surrender instead, we just assume that they are weak or passive. We know Daisy isn’t weak or passive so we suspect that she must be up to something.” 

Coulson regarded Daisy for several moments before speaking, “I think she is being completely sincere and genuinely trying to build trust. Sometimes just laying it all on the line and risking it all to do the right thing is more heroic than fighting to the bitter end against all odds. I trust her.”

“And she’s doing it with her eyes wide open,” added May. “It is easy to take risks if you don’t really know what they are but she knows what the consequences are. I agree with Phil, I think she’s being sincere; I trust her too.”

“What?!” growled Hill. “There is no way that Shield or the government can trust her just because you two can.”

“The question is not; can you trust her? The question is really; can you trust the two of us?” May asked.

Daisy felt tears well up in the corners of her eyes as she looked at Coulson and May. She fought to control them, it wouldn’t look good to cry right now. Despite her efforts, Hill saw them and, surprisingly, there was the tiniest softening of her own expression. She sighed. “That is not the face of someone trying to pull a con. Very well, you two are responsible for her. You will be the Shield liaisons with the Inhumans and I will hold you both personally responsible if this goes south.” She spun on her heel and walked out.

Daisy rushed over and hugged them both as soon as Hill had left. She was finally home.


	4. Out of the Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karnak introduces himself to Shield and past darkness is discussed

Daisy could not remember the last time she had ever been hugged so much. Mack had hugged her multiple times, same for Simmons. Even Fitz had hugged her once which floored her because Fitzy would return a hug any time she hugged him but this time he actually initiated it.

“So, how did you survive out there with everyone on your heels?” Fitz asked

“Well, I hate to say it but the quality of recruits that Shield is bringing in now leaves a lot to be desired,” Daisy laughed. “Coulson, May, and a few of the other old guard were tough to avoid but the new people were actually pretty easy to give the slip.”

“Yes, we’ve noticed the drop in standards as well,” Simmons said with a fake smile and pointedly NOT looking at a couple of new lab techs.

“And you brought him,” Fitz said under his breath and as he glanced at James who was across the lab trying to flirt with one of the techs. “Was that wise?”

“Wise? No. Necessary? Yes. Bringing him in with me was a good faith gesture since he has been wanted by Shield ever since we served Hive. Besides, he’s been kind of lost since Hive died. He needs a purpose and him wandering aimlessly around the streets with his powers and no purpose is a disaster waiting to happen.”

“Well maybe I can help,” offered Mack. “Hey James, you like cars?” He called to the other man. 

“Cars are alright, but I’m more of a motorcycle man myself.”

“Really? Come on down to the garage and I’ll show you a couple of motorcycles I’ve collected. I’ve even got a Barbarian V8 that I found wrecked in a junkyard that I’m almost done rebuilding.”

“You’re kidding me, right? No way you’ve got a Barbarian, I’ve got to see that!” 

The tech saw her chance to escape and disappeared. James glanced over his shoulder, saw that she was gone, shrugged, and followed Mack down to the garage. May and Coulson walked in as Mack and James walked out. May shot Mack a meaningful look that clearly said, keep an eye on that one. Mack nodded his understanding.

“We’ve got one hour to put together a report on the Thanos threat and get back to the Director,” May announced. “Let’s get to work. Did you bring any source material with you or is this all just on your say-so?”

“I brought source material,” spoke a quiet but commanding voice from behind them.

Coulson and May spun around. A medium size man, dressed in green and black stood behind them, his bare, slightly oversized cranium was covered in tattoos.

“Who are you?” Coulson demanded, drawing his gun. May immediately assumed an attack position, ready to strike.

“I am Magister Karnak, Daisy’s uncle,” he said, giving a slight bow.

“So your whole plan was to get her inside so that she could case our security system and let you in?” Coulson demanded.

May didn’t waste time on words and simply struck like a viper. Karnak sidestepped the blow with ridiculous ease. Daisy noticed that he did it in such a way that left May in between Coulson and himself so Coulson couldn’t get off a clear shot.

“Hardly, your security system has numerous weak points which are easily exploited. I did not need Daisy to “case” your base in order to gain access.”

May unleashed a torrent of kicks and strikes, moving so fast that even Daisy had trouble following what she was doing. Karnak blocked and dodged each one effortlessly while maintaining his conversation with Coulson.

“I have actually visited your base on two previous occasions in order to collect information. I will be happy to point your security shortcomings to Agent Fitz at his earliest convenience.”

Seeing that she was getting nowhere, May stopped attacking and assumed a defensive stance.

“The Thanos threat is far greater than even the Hive threat and I am here to share all that we have discovered so far.”

“I take it that you are an Inhuman?” Coulson asked warily as he slowly lowered his gun.

“From Attilan.”

“Do you have authority to speak for the Inhuman government of Attilan?”

“I am Magister Karnak, head of Interstellar Intelligence, member of the Royal Family, cousin to King Blackagar Boltagon, and yes, I can speak for the King.”

“Your uncle is a member of the Royal Family?” Simmons asked Daisy in a whisper. “So do you…”

“Have royal blood? Yeah, apparently so. It’s just like a Dickens novel, the poor, orphan girl who turns out to be royalty.”  
“Yeah, I don’t think that sounds like Dickens,” Fitz corrected. “His orphans tend to have noble character but he would never give one of them royal blood. That sounds more like…”

“By my estimate we now have 54 minutes to prepare the report, shall we get started?” Karnak asked, cutting off their side conversation.

Fitz zipped his lip and Simmons made her ‘Oops! I’m sorry!’ face. Daisy almost laughed, she missed talking to Fitzsimmons soooo much but now was not the time. 

“We’ll talk later, I promise,” she said, turning her attention back to Karnak, May, and Coulson.

* * * * *

Karnak had an answer for every question that Director Hill, the President’s science advisors, and the U.S Armed Forces Chief of Staff could think to ask about Thanos. Daisy and Coulson looked and sounded sincere as they answered their share of the questions about how humans and Inhumans could work together. May looked intimidating. The result was a presentation that went surprisingly well. 

“That went better than I expected,” Daisy said as they walked back to the lab. 

“Yeah, we need to make sure that May is standing in the back of the room looking angry at every meeting. We would get a lot more done,” Coulson replied. “Unfortunately, the next step is to try and make contact with Captain Rogers and his team. The only way we are going to save the planet is if we get EVERYONE on board and Cap doesn’t exactly talk to Shield or the government anymore.”

“I have an idea about that,” Daisy hinted, “while I was on the run I occasionally worked with a friend of a friend of Cap’s Secret Avengers team. Maybe they can drop a hint in the right ear and make it happen.”

“What about Stark and his Avenger’s team?” May asked, “I don’t see how we can get Cap and Stark on board at the same time.”

Coulson nodded at Daisy, “If you can get Cap on board I’ll take care of Tony but you’ve got to handle your end first. Tony has the Avengers moving Heaven and Earth trying to find Cap’s team. He’s had a lot of near misses but he hasn’t actually been able to catch him yet. There’s a lot of frustration there and I think that we will have an easier time of mending the fences if Steve and his team will come in first and make a show of good faith like you did.” 

“I’ll get right on it, I’ll have to talk to my friend of a friend and have him make contact and I am sure that they would prefer it if you weren’t eavesdropping.”

“Do whatever it takes. I’ll leave it to you.”

Daisy looked Coulson in the eye, “I’m serious, no surveillance, no tracking, it has to be completely discrete. I need you to make a real promise to me about this, not a spy promise with your fingers crossed behind your back.” The look on Daisy’s face made it very clear just how serious she was about this.

“I know that Shield has a history of agreeing to those kind of conditions and then conducting surveillance anyway but we all have to learn trust here. You have my word; it won’t happen this time.”

Coulson and May left to start sketching out a defense plan with Karnak. Daisy took the opportunity to talk to Fitzsimmons.

“How have the two of you been doing? What has it been like working at Shield with the Sokovia Accords hanging over your heads?”

“Actually, we left Shield for a little while,” Fitz explained. “We didn’t want to be involved with tracking you down or trying to find different ways to capture and imprison new Inhumans. We don’t like them running around out of control, of course, but we figure that helping to construct Inhuman concentration camps is even worse.”

“Coulson asked us to come back when he got the message from you about our alien visitors and we knew that there would be extraterrestrial physiology and technology to analyze,” Simmons added. “Seriously, how have you been doing? I know that it was…” Simmons looked for the right words to say,” … challenging for you after Hive. And then with new Inhumans popping up everywhere and the world governments using the Accords to go on a witch hunt for gifted and enhanced people, I know it kept you… very busy.”

“I survived the same way that you survived on Maveth for six months and Fitz survived months of rehab when it looked like he was never getting better. You survive it one day at a time. Every morning you wake up, you find a reason to fight through for one more day, and then one more day after that, and then one more day after that.”

“My reason to fight on another day was Fitz,” said Simmons as she affectionately brushed his hair back behind his ear. “When I finally gave up on ever getting home, I would have just walked out there and let Hive kill me except…” She couldn’t finish.

“Except Will wouldn’t let you,” Fitz said earnestly. “Don’t be afraid to say that to me, I know. I’m grateful to him for doing so or we wouldn’t have gotten you back.”

“What about you Fitz? What got you through each day?” Daisy asked.

“It was Simmons, but maybe not in the way you imagine. I thought she had left me because I was damaged. I wanted to get better so that if she ever came back she could see that she was wrong about me and see that I was a man worth loving.”

Simmons eyes welled up with tears and she began kissing him. Daisy suddenly felt very uncomfortable. She had expected the two of them to get together for years and normally she would have been thrilled to see them so loving to each other but right now it just felt like she was intruding on their private moment.

“Um, sorry,” Fitz managed to say after disentangling himself from Simmons. “So, what about you? What got you through each day?”

“At first, it was trying to live up to Lincoln’s belief in me. I wanted to protect Inhumans and to show that he was right, that I was destined for something greater and that his death to save me was not some tragic waste,” She paused for a long moment, the darkness of the old trauma starting to rise up in her heart again. “But after a while I realized that you can’t live that way. You can’t live trying to meet the imaginary expectations of another person who isn’t even alive anymore. You drive yourself nuts because no matter how much you do you are still convinced that you haven’t done enough. Part of me even began to resent Lincoln for saving me and putting this huge burden on me.”

Simmons nodded her head knowingly, “But it wasn’t even him that put the burden on you, you put it on yourself because you didn’t know what else to do.”

“Exactly! You can’t give up but you don’t want to go on. That thought pushed me forward for a while but eventually I realized it wasn’t enough. I guess that’s another part of being a survivor, when one reason to fight on through the day evaporates, you find a new one. You just can’t let yourself give in to the darkness. No matter how small the hope is, you never let yourself reach the point of having no hope. My next reason to fight through the day was my purpose. I used to think it was my purpose to save the Inhumans here on earth and I convinced myself that they wouldn’t have a life worth living if I wasn’t here to protect them. Now I know that my purpose is even bigger than that. I am here to stop Thanos from destroying the universe.”

Fitz’s eyes bugged out of his head, “I don’t know, that sounds like the biggest burden of all.”

Daisy laughed, “It’s not. In the beginning I was doing it all by myself. Now I am one member of a growing team of people. If I stumble along the way there will be someone else to help pick me back up and keep pushing on. 

“I also came to realize that life, even at its worst, is a zero sum game. Life can never take more away from you than it gave you in the first place. I felt a terrible loss over Lincoln’s death only because I first felt the joy of having him in my life. I felt a terrible guilt over causing so much destruction only because I had been given the incredible gift of my powers first. I am still learning to look for those little joys that life sends me every day, but I am no longer just surviving, I am finally beginning to live again.”

Jemma and Fitz hugged her and she squeezed them back.

“Now, if you don’t mind, I have to go make a couple of phone calls.”


	5. We've Got to Stop Meeting Like This

Steve Rogers, she was actually talking to Steve Rogers. Daisy had met more powerful people, arguably more important people. But meeting Steve Rogers was still special, he was the first superhero. Or at least the first that she had known about. She remembered reading his comics when she was a kid. They were horribly out of date and missing a lot of the pages but that was true of most of the books in the St. Agnes library. The nuns didn’t like kids reading comic books since they promoted “moral decay” but this was Captain America after all, the champion of righteousness, goodness, and America, so they kept a few in the back that someone had donated to the orphanage years before. Because they were in such poor condition the nuns had stopped putting them out for the children to read but Daisy had gotten pretty good at sneaking into the library’s back room late at night and liberating them. Cap had started her love affair with superheroes all those years ago and now she was actually talking with him like an equal. She was impressed, Hunter had actually pulled it off.

Cap gave her that charming smile that made him look even more handsome than he already was. Most women would have felt a flutter in their heart at that smile but in Daisy’s case it only created a hollow ache in hers. Lincoln’s death was still too fresh. Besides, she had never crushed on Cap, she had always dreamed of fighting alongside him. She had created her own fantasies of being “The Crystal Queen” who could shoot a ruby ray of fire out of her right hand and a sapphire ray of frost out of her left hand and she was always saving Cap from being overwhelmed by the Red Skull’s army. She even had her own sidekick named Topaz who was always getting into arguments with Bucky.

“It’s good to finally meet you, Quake,” Steve said, putting out a hand. She shook it.

“It’s good to finally meet you too, Captain America,” she responded with the tiniest bit of parody in her voice. “Even if it is in a giant, World War II airplane hangar in the middle of the night.”

“It’s away from people so if we have any unexpected visitors, no one will get hurt. And call me Steve, I’m not Captain America anymore.”

“I still think we should call you Nomad,” Sam Wilson spoke up from his position about 10 feet away. “The hero without a country, you would really rock that name and embarrass the government all at the same time.”

Steve rolled his eyes, “Sorry, he really gets into superhero names.”

“Yeah, like Quake!” Sam yelled as he slammed his hands together, “Boom! There it is! A power name, I love it.”

It was Daisy’s turn to roll her eyes, “Call me Daisy. I didn’t pick Quake, some journalist picked it and it stuck. To be honest, it’s not bad as nicknames go, but I prefer Daisy. How do you know Hunter?”

“He and I ran a couple of covert missions together back in his SAS days,” Sam explained. “When I ran into him at a bar in Mexico City we got to talking about his Shield days and he suggested you might be a good fit for our Secret Avengers team. I did a little background research on you and your Robin Hood act and then I asked him to set up a meet, so here we are.” 

Running into Hunter in a bar in Mexico had not been the chance meeting that Sam thought it was. Daisy had tracked Wilson down electronically and then traded favors with Hunter and Bobbi to make it happen. 

“Do you know Bobbi?” Daisy asked.

“His She-Devil ex-wife? No, never met her but they were already an on-again-off-again thing even back then. I heard she was actually pretty cool though, despite what he said.”

Daisy smiled at this. She was about to respond when Sam’s head snapped sideways as if he had seen something unexpected. He had been using Nightwing to monitor the outside of the hangar and now he saw something through the drone’s sensors.

“We got visitors. Nightwing is picking up a couple of radar signatures that match Tony’s and Rhodey’s suits. They’re pretty close already. I guess Tony’s been tinkering with invisibility to radar since I can barely see them even now.”

A repulsor blast hit the roof.

“He’s trying to take out Nightwing! That’s low man.” The drone ducked in through an open door in the far wall.

“Tony’s been hacking traffic cameras and surveillance networks around the world trying to track us down,” Steve explained. “It is really getting to be a pain in the ass.” 

Daisy now understood why they had been almost recklessly eager to meet her; they needed her hacking skills to counter Stark’s at least as much as they needed her quake powers. She regretted telling Coulson to stay out of this, it would have been so much easier if he could have given Stark a heads up to stay out of the way.

Rhodey came through the roof of the aircraft hangar first, his dark gray armor almost blending into the dark gray metal of the roof. Tony followed, his red and yellow armor loudly announcing his arrival.

As big as the hangar was, it still wasn’t really large enough for Sam to take full advantage of his wingsuit’s capabilities. He was a lot more maneuverable than Stark or Rhodes but he couldn’t take advantage of that in these close quarters and he lacked the heavy bruising power of the two iron man suits. Cap threw his shield at Tony but this was a simple steel shield that lacked the capabilities of his old vibranium one. It hit Stark hard enough to deflect him slightly in flight but that was about it.

“Cap, I don’t know who your cute friend is but the three of you better surrender,” Tony said. “You won’t win this fight.”

“Come on down and we’ll discuss it,” Sam said.

“No, I learned my lesson, I’m going to stay up here out of his reach.”

Daisy glanced at her two companions. Steve’s face was set with determination; he wouldn’t be giving up. Sam, on the other hand, looked worried. In here, those heavy-duty armored flying suits had all of the advantages.

Daisy took the initiative and hit Stark in the middle of the chest with a force blast powerful enough to knock him back through the roof and several hundred feet up into the night sky. As hard as she had hit him, she knew that his armor could take it. She only had a couple of seconds before he would be back but hopefully that would be enough time to deal with Rhodey.

Rhodes fired a repulsor blast at her but she had been anticipating it and was already rolling out of the way. She came up firing but this time it was not a force blast; she began to make his armor shake apart as she had done with guns when she had first gained her powers. Tearing apart an armored suit was much harder than tearing apart a gun but she was so much stronger now than she used to be that she actually felt like it was easier. In less than a second, random parts began flying off. In a second and a half the entire suit was disintegrating.

“Tony! Something’s happening!” Rhodey shouted. “It’s the girl, she doing something to my armor, it’s coming apart.” 

He tried to aim another repuslor blast at her but she stripped his gloves off of him before he could line up a shot, he tried to escape but she had already disable his boots. By the time Stark came flying back into the hangar three seconds later she had stripped Rhodes completely of his armor. She caught him with a giant pillow of vibrating air as he fell forty feet to the floor. Sam swooped over to deal with him.

She heard a long clang and saw a repulsor beam missing her wide to the right. Stark had been about to blast her but Steve had thrown his shield at Tony’s wrist and ruined his shot. He tried to target her again but Nightwing banged off of his helmet.

Daisy targeted his gloves but as soon as she began stripping parts off they began to reassemble themselves. The Iron Man armor was clearly more sophisticated than the War Machine armor he provided for Rhodey so taking him out was going to be more challenging. He couldn’t blast her because his gloves were in a constant state of disassembly and reassembly but she also couldn’t stop focusing on his gloves because the moment she did they would reassemble and he would take her out. It was time to test her latest trick in a real battle situation.

Daisy flipped her wrist like she was throwing a Frisbee and a spinning disk of focused, vibrating energy shot from her hand like a circular saw blade. It hit Stark in the face, cracking his faceplate and sending sparks flying.

“Keep him busy for a moment!” She called to Steve and Sam.

“On it!” came Sam’s response.

She pulled out her phone, tapped several keys and then touched the screen where it said Initiate Labyrinth Protocol. It was a desperate measure but these were desperate times. Steve knocked her out of the way as a repulsor beam swept through the spot she had been standing in just a moment before. Stark began spinning crazily around the room.

“What did you do to me?!” He yelled as he tried unsuccessfully to regain control of his armor. He began flying back and forth into walls yelling every swear word that he could think of.

“What did you do to him?” Sam asked.

“I didn’t have the time to hack his suit so I hit his helmet hard enough to take out his visual sensors and then I scrambled the GPS signals for the whole area. His suit is trying to process conflicting data between its own internal sensors and the incoming GPS signals. He can’t see to pilot his armor on his own and the AI in the suit is completely confused about his location and orientation so it’s going nuts.”

Daisy began making his armor vibrate until it began to come apart but this time, by concentrating even harder she was able to make each of the pieces warp and break as they came loose so that reassembly was impossible. As his suit came apart around him she also caught him with a giant pillow of vibrating air and gently lowered him to the ground. She glanced at Rhodes and saw that he was unconscious.

Stark came up sputtering. “What’s going on here and who is she?”

“Quake, man,” Sam laughed, “Her name is Quake as in Earthquake, and she sure did a number on the two of you.”

“Well, I’m going to find a way to counter that little trick of yours, so that’s never going to work again.”

“And I’m going to find a way to counter your little cloaking device so that you won’t ever be able to sneak up on us again,” she snapped back. “And remember, if you make it impossible for me to take you out without hurting you then next time I may have to really hurt you. What you saw today was just a preview of what I can really do.”

Tony glared at her but remained silent.

“Sorry, but we’ve got to leave and I can’t have you trying to follow us,” Steve said, shaking his head. He punched Stark in the jaw before he could say anything and knocked him out cold.

Sam was clearly pumped, “With you and Wanda on our team we are loaded for BEAR! “

“So you’re just assuming that I am joining your team now,” Daisy countered, trying to act nonchalant.

“They think you’re on our side now,” Sam said with a smile, “You might as well join our Secret Avengers ‘cause they are going to throw you in jail for being on the team anyway if they ever catch you.”

Daisy laughed, “I guess I’m in. Please tell me that your secret headquarters at least has a pool table and a soda machine.” Sam Laughed.

“You were very impressive,” Rogers said and she knew that he sincerely meant it. 

Somewhere deep inside of her a little girl squealed, “I just impressed Captain ‘Frikkin’ America!” She suppressed it and shrugged.

“I was just doing my job.”

“Your job? What’s your job?” Steve asked with a frown.

“Building Bridges.”


End file.
